


Born As Hatched

by Owlship



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pern Fusion, Fluff, Gen, Impression (Dragonriders of Pern), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Venom is a Dragon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 13:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16451033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlship/pseuds/Owlship
Summary: The dragon decides, the rider complies. (Even if he doesn't know he's a rider yet)





	Born As Hatched

**Author's Note:**

> Because every fandom needs a Pern AU.
> 
> Originally posted [on tumblr](http://v8roadworrier.tumblr.com/post/179456122371/the-stands-are-clearing-the-fuss-of-a-hatching)!

The stands are clearing, the fuss of a Hatching over and done with. Except.

"There's still an egg left," Eddie says, bewildered.

Anne spares it a glance and then shrugs. "Duds happen, Eddie. You know this."

"But," Eddie says, "No. That's not a dud." He'd watched the egg rock back and forth like the rest, though being so small it was mostly ignored.

Anne sighs and puts her hand on his arm. She's seen nearly as many Hatchings as he has- he's Weyr bred, raised around dragons his entire life, but she rides a Gold and that means she has to attend at least her own clutches. They both know that, while very rare, dud eggs are left alone for the mother dragon to drop _between_ once the Hatching is over.

Except that isn't a dud egg. "It's still alive in there!" he says, indignant. The movements have slowed, true, but it hasn't been enough time to declare it dead.

Anne merely shakes her head. "Eddie, hun, it's over with."

Eddie shakes off her hand and without any real thought to it barrels down through the escaping crowd of the stands and vaults over the wall, the heat of the hatching sands scorching even though his boots.

The Gold who laid this clutch, Klyntar, eyes him with one huge swirling eye before turning away entirely.

"Eddie, get back up here!" Anne shouts. She doesn't jump down onto the sand to pull him away by force, though.

"In a minute," Eddie says, and kneels down besides the dragon's egg. It gives a weak little shudder and then sits still.

They'd said from the beginning that the egg was undersized, likely to not contain a viable hatchling, but sitting next to it that's still a big animal inside of there. About the size of a newborn runnerbeast, or a full-grown woolbeast. Small for a dragon means something very different than small altogether.

"Come on," he says, reaching out to rap on the shell with his knuckles. You're not supposed to touch unhatched eggs, except of course if you're a Candidate and you're brave enough to sneak into the hatching sands.

This isn't the first time he's touched an unhatched dragon egg, though this time he isn't trying to persuade the hatchling inside to Impress on him. Eddie has long since outgrown the age of wistfully looking at the boys and girls around him Impressing newborn dragons of their own while he was left standing in the sun with nothing to show but reddened feet from the hot sand.

There's a long moment of nothing, and Eddie thinks maybe he was wrong and the egg really is a dud after all, and then the dragon inside of it knocks back from the other side of the shell.

"That's it," he coaxes, and knocks again. "You can do it."

The egg rocks a little with the force of its tapping, but it still can't seem to break out of the shell.

"Get away from there!" someone shouts, and Eddie looks away from the egg to find them in the crowd. A Bronze rider, and thus someone with more authority than Eddie, but not Weyrleader Carlton.

"It's still alive!" Eddie shouts back, and knocks on the egg again. The tap that comes back is quieter than the last.

"Ah, shards," Eddie swears, and looks around. Klyntar is watching from the far end of the hatching bowl with an inscrutable expression, but her rider hasn't rushed over to pull him away from the egg and so he figures he's probably okay for the moment. He raises his fist and smashes it against the shell of the egg, cursing at the pain this creates.

"Eddie, stop!" Anne calls, but no one has appeared to drag him off yet, and Klyntar has yet to lash out at him.

He hits the shell again, and again, until a crack appears. "That's it!" he says, "Come on, get out and find your rider. Though all the good ones are gone by now."

The Candidates are, indeed, mostly gone. A small cluster of three linger by the exit, watching him and talking amongst themselves. A flash of uncertainty passes through him as he looks at them. Will they be happy with the runt of the litter, rescued from its shell instead of hatching under its own power?

Of course they will be, Eddie answers himself. Any dragon is an immeasurable blessing, even one that needed a little help to get started.

The egg is rocking again now, more and more cracks appearing. Eddie scrabbles his nails against the biggest chunk until he's able to pull it away, and with a wet noise the dragon is suddenly expelled to flop onto the sand.

"That's it, now," he croons. The dragon looks like it has all its limbs to him, and it's breathing under its own power. It was viable after all, then. Good. The shard of shell in his hand is thicker than usual- no wonder it had such a tough time breaking out. "Go find your rider."

" **My name is Venom** ," a voice inside of his head says.

"That's great," Eddie says, waving for the Candidates to come closer. "Tell that to your rider. Look, here are some fine youths to choose from."

" **I am Venom** ," the voice repeats, " **And you are mine**."

Eddie stops dead. He looks down at the little dragon, covered with egg goop and sand over its dark- maybe brown?- skin, wide faceted eyes blankly white instead of the usual bright, jewel-like colors. It opens its mouth and lets out a pitiful wail.

" **Am hungry, Eddie** ," it says.

"Oh, fuck," Eddie says, dumbfounded. "No no, you're mistaken. I'm too old to become your rider, pick someone else."

" **You are mine** ," the dragon insists. It gets up to its wobbly legs and butts its head against his chest, bowling him over.

Eddie looks around wildly from his new position flat on his back and see Anne walking over, picking her way confidently over the hot sands. "Help!" he calls out. The dragon moves to slump onto his chest and chirps.

"Oh, Eddie," Anne says when she comes to a stop next to him. "Only you."

" **I am hungry** ," the dragon repeats. Its nose is warm and soft when it presses against his chin, white eyes staring into his, a warmth seeping deep down through his skin to the very marrow of his being. " **Feed me**."

Eddie finds that his hands have reached for the little dragon quite without his directing them, fingers smoothing over rapidly-drying skin. He isn't pushing it away like he should be, he's instead caressing it, the dragon sending him a contented mental purr like it's some kind of housefeline.

"His name is Venom," Eddie says helplessly. The happy feeling that the dragon sends to him wells up in his chest, spilling out until he's laughing out loud. Him, Impressing a dragon! And nearly twenty turns too late, too. "And he's hungry," he says, before Venom has a chance to repeat himself again.

"Then let's get him fed," Anne says with a fond shake of her head.


End file.
